Vender of the Week: Citizens of Humanity

You can find the amazing luxury denim brand Citizens of Humanity worldwide, from the US to Australia via Lebanon and Kuwait. We spent some time chatting to Samantha from the CoH team about the brand, and heard how Vend’s inventory tracking capabilities have helped them sell more effectively in their LA concept store.

Can you tell us a little about the vision behind Citizens of Humanity?

Citizens of Humanity was established in 2003 by Jerome Dahan, who has over 25 years of experience in the denim industry. The brand represents a rigorous commitment to cutting edge denim style, comfort, and fit without compromise. To ensure the product is unparalleled, we design, market and produce more than one million pairs of jeans annually in our own internal laundry facility.

Citizens of Humanity is distributed in over 1,300 retailers in more than 35 countries including high-end specialty boutiques such as Curve, Fred Segal, Scoop, Madison and Anthropologie, online at shopbop.com and MyTheresa.com, as well as in luxury department stores Barneys New York, Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus and Bloomingdale’s.

How does your local following compare with your online presence?

We are an LA-based company and all of our jeans are made here, in our very own laundry. We get a great local following from LA customers, and our concept store in West Hollywood is super convenient for people to come and try on different styles.

We only launched our e-commerce website in November 2013, but the feedback and sales have been phenomenal. Although we are distributed across the US, people love the convenience of online shopping with shipping straight to their door. We also offer free shipping and returns.

What has your experience with Vend been like?

In February 2013 we opened up a pop-up shop out of our PR showroom in West Hollywood; it was received so positively that it has since been turned into a permanent concept shop. Since then we have also opened up a concept store in Japan. Up until January we were ringing people up through Paypal and having to update our inventory manually which was not only a nuisance, but prone to error.

Vend came to the rescue, offering an inventory system that automatically updates as sales come through and allowed us to stay connected with our Paypal account. Transactions have been much simpler since!

Do you have any advice for new retailers?

Do your research, but follow your instincts.

Do you have an awesome success story too? Share it with Grace and the 12,000-strong Vend community!

Austin helps run the North American marketing efforts for Vend. Growing up around his family's Honey Farm and store in Texas, he has a passion for small business in his DNA. Austin is a writer, a traveler, and a live-music lover. Ask him what he's reading this week!